Before and After: Jess and Jon’s Living Room Reveal

July 27, 2018

Darkest Before The Decor

Jon and Jess’s living room was dark and dingy when I first visited the house. Like their kitchen, black granite tiles covered the entire floor. Mustard walls and vinyl vertical blinds made the room feel dirty and old. Luckily, they didn’t have a lot of existing furniture and they also gave away a bunch of old pieces. This gave us a fresh palette to work with. I knew the main challenge would be to bring light into the room and reflect it around the space.

Brightness Abounds

The space is now so much brighter. The difference in lighting is quite dramatic. Painting the walls white (Behr Polar Bear) and continuing the light oak floors from the kitchen flooded the room with light. Everything in the room reflects light including the furniture pieces. While I love the idea of a white couch, Jess and Jon knew that the baby would destroy it, so we went with a linen colored fabric sofa/chaise. A white marble coffee table, a gray/off white rug and ivory fabric window treatments all contribute in making this space feel light and airy. For a pop of color, I wanted a peacock blue accent chair so we landed on an affordable one from AllModern. The black lamp (Target: Hearth and Hand) adds a bit of contrast against all the white. All the throw pillow covers were from H&M and the pillow inserts from IKEA. If you haven’t seen my cheap pillow hack, check it out here.

Finding an affordable TV console was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. Most large TV consoles will run you $800 – $2000. Eventually we snagged this one from AllModern for $200. During the renovation, a group of thieves broke into the home and stole a bunch of tools along with their TV. While it was definitely an unfortunate event, it gave them an excuse to buy a big smart TV to compliment the new console.

Filling The Void

Next to the front door was a massive blank wall. Ideally I would have wanted to cut a new window in it to bring in more light, but sadly that wasn’t in the budget. Instead I decided to use the extra wall space to create an entryway of sorts by adding a storage bench, mirror and coat hooks. This was both a practical and aesthetic solution.

Overall, Jon and Jess spent around $2600 for all the furnishings in their living room. Considering the fact that all the furniture and decor was brand new, I think we did pretty well. Stay tuned for the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom reveals!